00:00Former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro will appear in an American courtroom today. He and
00:06his wife will be arraigned on federal charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import
00:12cocaine, as well as weapons possession charges. Now, if he is convicted, he faces life in prison
00:18or potentially the death penalty. And I say potentially because under federal law, a defendant
00:24guilty of violating the Controlled Substances Act, quote, as part of a continuing criminal
00:29enterprise, while rare, can be eligible for the death penalty. But as I said, rare.
00:35Maduro and his wife are currently being held separately at the Metropolitan Detention Center
00:39in Brooklyn, New York. That name probably sounds familiar, and it should. It's the same jail that
00:44currently holds Luigi Mangione and once held both Sean Diddy Combs and Jeffrey Epstein's
00:49accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Now, as for what is next in Venezuela and the U.S. role there,
00:54well, the Post's deputy managing editor, Michael Zenni, will speak with me about that in a minute.
00:58But first, some other headlines you should know about, like the latest on the Somali fraud
01:03investigation in Minnesota. We're learning more about the fraudsters themselves and how
01:08they spent all that money that they stole from the government. Hundreds of millions of dollars
01:14were bilked from COVID relief programs. The cash was subsequently squandered on things like fancy
01:20condos and expensive cars. One fraudster actually spent $350,000 at a high-end Kenyan resort along the
01:28Indian Ocean. Another convicted thief was sentenced to 28 years in prison and forced to pay $40 million
01:35in restitution after he used the stolen funds to become a real estate mogul, which is not even a little
01:41bit close to what he was supposed to be doing with it. This guy claimed that he was using government
01:47funds to serve 18 million meals to needy children. Not a lot of needy kids at the luxury four-story
01:54apartment building in Nairobi that he really used the money on. Now, the mastermind behind this
02:01massive fraud scheme is actually not even a Somali citizen. Former executive director of the charity
02:07Feeding Our Future Amy Bach is American. She paid her boyfriend at the time a $1 million yearly salary
02:14with these stolen funds, and they took extravagant vacations, complete with rented Lamborghinis and
02:20Rolls Royces for $2,000 a day. All totaled. Authorities believe the abuse and fraud related
02:26to taxpayer-funded child care and social services in Minnesota could be as much as $9 billion.
02:34President Biden is flush with cash. A new analysis from the National Taxpayer Union Foundation found that
02:42he cashed in on the largest taxpayer-funded pension of any president ever. $417,000 to be exact, which is
02:52more than his presidential salary. That estimated sum is double what Biden's former boss Barack Obama
02:59netted from his government pension. So why did Biden get such a windfall? His career as a senator and vice
03:06president and president has allowed him to take advantage of a kind of loophole that lets him tap
03:13into multiple retirement funds. I mean, the man was a politician for decades. Biden spent 44 years between
03:20the Senate and being Veep. And the formula for figuring out that pension takes into account his three
03:25highest earning years. And as you can imagine, over that time span and with those titles, it's a pretty
03:31big chunk of change. Then, on top of all that, former presidents get about $250,000 each year in
03:38retirement. A former president also gets cash for things like staff, equipment, and even office space.
03:44For 2026, the government has budgeted about $1.5 million for all of Biden's perks. But it's not just
03:52presidential perks that are costing us taxpayers. Members of Congress are eligible for a pension after
03:58five years of service. That drains American wallets to the tune of $38 million a year. And you know who's
04:07not going to pass a law limiting that? Yeah, Congress. For more on these stories and everything else you
04:14could possibly want to know, check out the New York Post in print or online. And don't forget, like and
04:19subscribe to the New York Postcast wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. I promise you'll be glad you did.
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